Country club to host annual 4-ball tournamentThe Russellville Country Club will host the 2013 Gardner-Goodwin 4-Ball tournament on July 12-14 — one of the oldest and largest annual tournaments held at the site. “The Russellville Country Club was established in 1926, and we’ve been having the 4-ball tournament for almost as many years,” Russellville Country Club president Bryan Fisher said. “It’s really important to us. It brings people here from all over the state, and we’ve been fortuna...

Sports Briefs (July 7, 2013)Sixth annual Sand Lizard golf tournament July 27 DARDANELLE — The sixth annual Sand Lizard Golf Tournament will begin at 8 a.m. on July 27 at the Lion’s Den Golf Course. Cost for a two-person team is $120 and includes lunch. Prizes will be awarded for longest drive, closest to the pin as well as door prizes. Cogswell Motors will sponsor a $25,000 hole-in-one contest. For more information, call Teresa Smallwood at (479) 477-2226 or Lion’s Den G...

Surtevall named WGCA All-America ScholarGolden Suns golfer Rebecka Surtevall earned her share of awards for her performance on the golf course this season, and recently added an academic honor to that, as the sophomore earned a place on the 2012-13 Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-America Scholars honor roll, announced this week. Student-athletes must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or higher in order to qualify as a WGCA All-America Scholar. A two-time Great A...

Five Golden Suns participate in AHSCA All-Star gameThe Arkansas Tech Golden Suns basketball program will largely restock with home-grown talent next season, with five of its signees for the 2013-14 season selected to participate in the recent Arkansas High School Coaches Association’s All-Star Game held recently in Conway. Signee Mary Crow of Bauxite was selected as the West’s Most Outstanding Player after scoring a team-high 10 points with five rebounds, while fellow signee Tyeshia Harris of ...

American Legion Post 20 wins 3-0Russellville’s American Legion Post 20 baseball team snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday night by beating Benton Everett GMC 3-0 at Arkansas Tech Field. Russellville (10-10) scored one run in the first inning and added two more in the third. Hayden Timmerman started the bottom of the first with a walk. After Benton turned a double play, however, Haas doubled and later scored after Corey Hottinger and Andrew Elam each drew walks and ad...

Sports Briefs (July 5, 2013)Adult softball meeting Monday The Russellville Recreation and Parks Department will host an organizational meeting for Adult Fall Softball at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Hughes Community Center. Anyone interested in entering a team in the fall softball league should have a representative present at this meeting. Registration will begin July 15 and end at 5 p.m. July 26. If you are unable to attend, necessary forms are available in the Russellville...

TCW offers Rumble Riot in ClarksvilleCLARKSVILLE — On the horizen of Traditional Championship Wrestling’s (TCW) second annual Rumble Riot on Saturday at the Marvin Vinson Center, the company has signed its second television deal in as many months. TCW signed with Cox Sports Television (CST) in June for a one-hour high-definition show at 11 p.m. every Friday. Less than a month later, the organization signed a second deal with the Pursuit Channel for a one-hour show which will air ...

Before arrest, Hernandez had brushes with violence BOSTON (AP) — As former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez sits in a private cell for his protection, a portrait is emerging of a man whose life away from the field included brushes with violence that started as long ago as his freshman year at the University of Florida. Details of a series of altercations and gun incidents linked to the Pro Bowler have surfaced since Hernandez was arrested June 26 in the death of a semi-pro footba...

Student-athletes get little summer restWhen many students are enjoying the luxuries that summer vacation brings, there are still those hard at work in gymnasiums, weight rooms and football fields across the Arkansas River Valley. The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) requires football teams to take at least two weeks off during the summer and for most teams, that’s all they can afford. “We’re not good enough to take longer than that,” Pottsville head football coach Bryan Rust j...

Did you know?: There was actually a Fort Smith BowlAfter nearly a decade of unparalleled optimism and prosperity, the United States was thrown into despair on Oct. 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed. This day came to be known as Black Tuesday and marked the beginning of the Great Depression that lasted over a decade until the start of World War II. By 1931, the impacts and hardships of the Great Depression were being felt throughout Arkansas as unemployment rates and poverty reached un...

RHS puts Rowlett in charge of tennisA new face will take command of the Russellville Cyclones tennis team in the fall. The Russellville School District has asked Bill Rowlett to take over as a volunteer coach after former head coach Lisa Gray took a teaching position at Lake Hamilton. Russellville athletic director Johnny Johnson said Rowlett was the perfect fit for the position because he has been involved in the tennis community for a long time. Since 1982, according to Rowlet...

Russellville American Legion baseball drops 3Russellville’s American Legion Post 20 baseball team is suffering a W drought as of late. The Patriots have lost five of their last six games, the most recent a three-game skid to Cabot and a doubleheader sweep at Harrison. Russellville (9-10) lost 7-3 to Cabot at Tech Field on Wednesday. Cabot took a 3-1 lead by the end of the second inning and held Post 20 scoreless until the sixth, when the Patriots knocked in two runs. But by that time, Ca...

Conn. man arraigned in ex-Patriot’s murder case ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — An arrested man from former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez’s hometown was transferred to Massachusetts on Friday to face a gun charge connected to the murder case against Hernandez while a third suspect surrendered to authorities in Florida. Carlos Ortiz, who lives in Bristol, Conn., and Ernest Wallace, who walked into a South Florida police station, were the men identified earlier as being with Hernande...

Little league players shine light on futureThere are as many reasons to play baseball as there are players that play the game. From T-ball, softball to baseball, players of all age groups come together on the diamond each summer for a whole host of reasons. There are players in the Arkansas River Valley who play baseball with little recognition or accolades, aside from that given by the family members in the stand. They are future high school players, future church league softball play...

Hernandez is denied bail in Mass. murder case FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A judge on Thursday denied bail for former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a friend. Hernandez’s lawyer argued that Hernandez is not a risk to flee and the case against him is circumstantial. But a prosecutor said the evidence is “overwhelming.” A search of a Hummer belonging to Hernandez turned up an ammunition clip matching the caliber o...

Sports Briefs (June 27, 2013)Russellville Ski Area Trail dedication The city of Russellville invites the public to the dedication of the Russellville Ski Area Trail at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The trail is located at 3694 Pleasant View Road in the competition water ski area on Pleasant View Park. The trail was funded by the parks portion of the one-cent sales tax. Dover youth football deadline is Saturday DOVER — Registration for participation in Dover Youth Football for the 2...

Cyclone AD remains busy in summerIt may be summer, but Russellville Athletics Director Johnny Johnson has stayed busy getting the district’s athletics geared up for the 2013-14 school year. The first order of business was to talk to some candidates for the open head tennis coach position. Former coach Lisa Gray’s resignation was approved by the Russellville School Board last week. She has taken a new teaching job at Lake Hamilton, Johnson said, adding he hoped to name a new C...

Ozarks men’s basketball hires FerrellCLARKSVILLE — West Fork’s David Ferrell was named the new head men’s basketball coach Wednesday at the University of the Ozarks, Athletics Director Jimmy Clark announced. Ferrell has spent the last 21 years as the head boy’s basketball coach at West Fork High School where he posted a 458-176 (.733) record and made eight trips to the state tournament. He has compiled a 510-202 (.716) career record in 24 years as a head coach at Shiloh Christian...

Pro football player Hernandez charged with murder ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder in the shooting death of a friend prosecutors say had angered the NFL player at a nightclub a few days earlier by talking to the wrong people. Hernandez, 23, was taken from his North Attleborough home in handcuffs just over a week after Boston semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd’s bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial ...

Russellville’s Post 20 tops JacksonvilleThe Russellville American Legion Post 20 Patriots defeated Jacksonville 8-3 on Sunday at Tech Field on the Arkansas Tech University campus. Russellville (9-7) head coach Michael Milum said the win was nice off the shoulders of two loses to the Texarkana Razorbacks on Saturday. “It was nice to come out and play well and get a good solid win,” he said. “We had two hard-fought losses to Texarkana and we came out on the short end of the stick. It ...